Business Ethics

he Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profit
What is the social responsibility of a business? Is it to increase profits as American economist Milton Friedman argues? Is it to make decisions that benefit and protect society? According to the Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms, social responsibility is the “principle that businesses should actively contribute to the welfare of society and not only maximise profits”. In my view the statement ‘the social responsibility of business is to increase profit’ is true to an extent, however, I believe a corporation’s responsibilities extend beyond just maximising profits.
The ‘Narrow View’ argues that profit maximisation is the only objective for a business. Theodore Levitt wrote, “in the end business has only two responsibilities- to obey the elementary canons of face-to-face civility (honesty, good faith and so on) and to seek material gain” Levitt’s opinion could be perceived as realistic to an extent, however, I believe he doesn’t take into account the negative side-effects that business activities can have on society. Friedman strongly rejects any concept of corporate social responsibility that would deter a business’s primary goal of profit maximisation. Furthermore, he argues that only people can have responsibilities, not an artificial being such as a corporation. If an artificial being such as a business was to have responsibilities, however, than I would find it appropriate that it would be inclined to act in a way of the interest of the corporation, by increasing profits for workers and shareholders. However, a corporate executive with said “social responsibility” would be acting in some way that is not in the interest of employers, for example, refraining from increasing the price of products to prevent inflation, even though an increase in prices would be in the best interest of the…...

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Name
Institution of Affiliation
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...BUSINESS ETHICS |
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5/7/2015 |
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Introduction
This Presentation will describe about our group opinion that business ethics are important it is not a dispensable. It is the connecting point that organization work within a legal and fair.Because of the fierce competition between organizations ethics are in a declining theses days. But organization tries to protect them because it is the tool that builds good relationships between employees and management as well as public and the organization.
Content
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...on ethics by the Santa Clara University, a number of years ago sociologist Raymond Baumhart conducted a survey asking people about what they think of ethics. The results showed many people linking ethics to their feelings, their religion and standards set by the society (Manuel et al, para. 2). Manuel Velasquez and other authors of an article published by the Santa Clara University on business ethics pointed out flaws in the responses. They believed that feelings sometimes deviate from ethics because a person may feel to do something that is not right (Manuel et al, para. 4). Moreover, they argued that most religions advocate high ethical standards, yet these standards cannot be identified with religion because if they were, they would have only applied to religious people (Manuel et al, para. 5). Finally, saying that ethics are standards that a society set was proved wrong as the standards of behavior in a society can diverge from ethics, considering Nazi Germany which was a society that became morally corrupt (Manuel et al.). This was what ethics are not. Then, what are ethics? Ethics are the well founded standards that are backed up by consistent and well founded reasons. These standards include rights, obligations, honesty, fairness, benefit to society or specific virtues. For example, the rights may include right to life and right to freedom whereas reasonable obligations may include abstaining from stealing and fraud (Manuel et al, para 7). The application of ethics is......

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At the most basic level, manufacturers should exercise due care in establishing that all reasonable steps are taken to ensure that their products are free from defects and safe to use as well as effective and fit for the purpose. Cigarette may be effective as they claim it to be. It works as stress reliever and give one some attitude, the purpose may be fulfilled, but it is not a safe product in any measure. And though consumers’ right to a safe product is not an unlimited right, but here they targeted children as young as 11 found buying and consuming single cigarettes. They are really vulnerable and unlimited right is not applicable for them.
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